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Dear colleagues,
Traditionally (for the forty-fifth time this year), the beginning of April came shortly after we replaced standard time with daylight saving time. The media, also traditionally, have been discussing whether the time change affects people's mental well-being and health, and the authors have agreed that it does. Fortunately, the beginning of April also coincided with the end of Easter, which guarantees health – at least for the female population.
Peter Senge points out in his book that the English words for health and whole have a common root (in Old English, hal). The author figuratively attributes unhealthiness to the fact that we cannot perceive the world as a whole but only in a fragmented way. I believe that the upcoming reading week may be an opportunity for us to approach this notion of health (in the sense of seeing and being aware of the whole). Instead of a week segmented into two-hour blocks, with topic after topic in rapid succession in our minds, we can immerse ourselves in a single topic, attend to it beyond the schedule window, and find a sufficient time niche for so-called systems thinking. Senge describes this as the step by which health is also strengthened.
If, in the meantime, you would like to relax with an informal educational activity, seminar or workshop, you can do that too. The same week as Reading Week is also Teacher Week, which is not only for students in teacher training programmes but also for all educators, teachers and lecturers. Here, too, we will be looking at (among many other things) topics close to health - for example, preventing burnout and maintaining teachers' personal well-being and mental health issues.
I sincerely wish you to find the best possible prescription not only for April.
Zuzana Šalamounová
Vice-Dean for Teacher Training Programmes and Life-long Education
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